Study on the effect of lean meat content on commercial value of porcine carcasses

Summary.

The aim of the study was to investigate the effect of fleshing of fatteners on their commercial value, calculated on the basis of the total manufacturing costs for elements from cutting and trimming of halfcarcasses in a large meat processing plant. Analyses were conducted in 2009 on 327 porcine carcasses, divided into 16 groups with leanness ranging from 45 to 60%, each differing by 1% in the meat content. It was found that the index of carcass value increment, defining an increase in the value of 1 kg carcass at leanness increased by 1%, was 2.82 grosz in case of cutting and 7.32 grosz in case of trimming of elements from halfcarcasses. In order to increase this index in case of cutting to the level comparable to that of trimming it is necessary to differentiate purchase prices for cuts according to the EUROP classification. The recorded differing indexes of value increments for individual elements of halfcarcasses confirm the finding that in the selection of genotype for fattening the focus should be on the high proportion of the hindquarter (indexes of 5.13, 7.38 and 9.25 gr/%/kg for the forequarter, middles and the hindquarter).